Experimenting with an Artificial Intelligence Initiative in a Public Administration: Contributions from an Action Research Approach

Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its growing presence in professional settings raise questions about the transformation of public administrations, which are often addressed in speculative terms. This article seeks to demonstrate how a public administration can implement an AI initiative within its services. Adopting a constructivist stance and an action research approach (Susman & Evered, 1978), the study draws on iterative cycles between theory and field inquiry. Based on semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders and participant observation, the article relies on three successive qualitative studies conducted in three organizational units of the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior. The findings highlight the need to anticipate the impacts of AI tools by evaluating them in their actual context of use while actively involving the stakeholders concerned. They underscore the importance of design processes grounded in genuine needs identified by members of the organization themselves. Finally, the results identify the key success factors and the challenges associated with AI integration, showing that such implementation can strengthen dynamic capabilities and knowledge management, thereby fostering a more effective adoption of technologies within public administrations.